DuPont in Orange has upset, emission

Updated 10:06 am, Wednesday, January 15, 2014

UPDATE: An upset condition at the DuPont Sabine River Works in Orange resulted in an unknown amount of ethylene released into the air, a company spokesman said.

At about 11 p.m. Tuesday, a manufacturing unit at the Sabine River Works went into "emergency shutdown" that led to the emission.

No injuries were reported and safety systems functioned properly to protect the plant's people and the nearby community, said Aaron Woods, a DuPont spokesman.

The upset condition was cleared by midnight, he said.

"An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the unit shutdown. At this time we have no information on when the unit will resume operations," Woods said.

Woods said the ethylene was pressurized in the unit when the upset occurred. During decompression and venting through a flare stack, the release made a loud noise "like a freight train" passing and long tongues of flame were visible, he said.

"It was the middle of the night," Woods said. "You could see it and hear it. We apologize for the disturbance."

He said the flare stack is high enough so the ethylene would have been dispersed and dissipated into the air.

Ethylene is made from ethane, a component of natural gas. The ethylene is used to make polyethylene, which is turned into plastic pellets and is sent to a secondary manufacturer to make various products.